Tom Clancy’s The DivisionPTS is available now for PC users for feedback purposes, but the 1.4 patch update won’t be available until October. Ubisoft delayed the next two expansions to make improvements to the game. During the course of the public test servers release of the patch, discoveries of certain armors, weapons, and world tiers were noted.

As you can see, certain world maps could be chosen with their own level enemy difficulties when your character reached level 30. Also, the higher the tier, the greater the rewards. With the world levels comes the ability to choose Normal to Challenging modes for additional loot opportunities.

Complete 1.4 Patch Weapon Talent Buffs/Nerfs

With the upcoming Tom Clancy’s The Divison 1.4 patch, there will be a major focus on weapon and gear stats, according to Bit Bag. Redditors data mined a good amount of information. For example, light machine guns are said to have buffs among other things. Submachine gun users may not be so pleased as their stats have been significantly nerfed.

YouTuber Skill Up gave an example of shotgun damage being nerfed for the 1.4 patch. The YouTuber spoke directly with Ubisoft Senior Developer and Lead Weapons Designer Fredrik Thylander regarding this stat.

“He explained to me that shotguns were nerfed and they in fact lost the 30-percent damage increase that they received very recently. That was in patch 1.3 were shot guns got a 30-percent damage buff.”

The Redditor data miners saw nothing specific to the shotgun in the notes, but if Thylander says it, then it has been confirmed by the Ubisoft developer for The Division.

Weapons Talents: Removed And No/Minimal Changes

With The Division game’s 1.4 patch, expect the Restored and Steady talents to be removed. If anyone recalls their player being on fire, Restored never worked. Steady was supposed to remove your weapon sway. Although there was a slight sway in the game, the talent was insignificant when it came to shooting performance.

The following weapon talents have received no changes or minimal changes.

However, although these didn’t change much materially, the overall patch 1.4 game change structure for these talents will allow for better results in The Division.

For instance, Ferocious hasn’t changed, but relatively speaking, it does more damage compared to the nerfed Deadly and Brutal weapon talents which cater to damage. The overall comparison makes Ferocious a much more “damage efficient” talent in The Division 1.4 patch/update overall, according to a video by Skill Up.

Since other talents are weaker, it makes the Ferocious talent stronger by comparison.

There are also talents that were once considered strong, but they are now weaker due to the overall 1.4 patch game restructuring. The Self-Preserved talent is an example as it was helpful when used in conjunction with SMGs where critical hits across the board had been nerfed by 20 percent. There was a time players could stack critical hit damage on their Division agent, but not enough to make Self-Preserved desirable.

The Division Armor System Explained

Apparently, there had been confusion regarding the armor for the 1.4 patch. MacroStyle gave some clarification in regard to armor damage mitigation, the percentage cap, and the points involved. It also depends on each world tier your character chooses. It looks like armor got the biggest overhaul.

In The Division game’s 1.3 patch, the armor points on each piece could add up to a maximum amount of 5,354. This gave your stats a 75 percent damage mitigation. In patch 1.4, the method is similar, but the cap has been brought down to 60 percent damage mitigation.

The 60 percent cap also depends on which world tier you’re in. That means different values per world tier in The Division.

World Tier 1 = 4,920

World Tier 2 = 7,658

World Tier 3 = 9,326

World Tier 4 = 11,565

Though it may seem to be quite a challenge to reach the tier four qualifier in the Tom Clancy game, the armor points that come with the equipment have been adjusted higher to help it along.

Why the change per world tier? Massive wanted to give the gear score more meaning. They wanted to make sure there was no overlap between lower gear score items and the higher ones in The Division.

For example, for 182 gear items, their highest roll numbers will be lower than the lowest rolls on the 204 pieces. That way, there’s a buffer between the two.

The challenge this can present to The Division game’s 1.4 patch is that players first encountering the next tier level will wind up being “squishy” because their damage mitigation will be significantly lower than their 60 percent cap in tier one.

The following is an example of what a Division agent’s damage mitigation will be in the 1.4 patch if their armor points are at 6,000.

World Tier 1 = 60 percent (capped)

World Tier 2 = 47 percent

World Tier 3 = 38 percent

World Tier 4 = 31 percent

As you can see, if you enter the second tier for the first time, there may be difficulty in achieving advancement in the game with only a 47 percent damage mitigation while going up against higher level NPCs.

The Tom Clancy’s The Division game has made great strides in getting user feedback via the PTS method for the 1.4 game patch. Do you think these changes are desirable?